Serious about fighting pollution? Not if 58 new sectors are running almost entirely on gensets

GURUGRAM: Policymakers and politicians love the word ‘green’ when they are describing technology: in pollution-scarred NCR, the word has permeated into daily diction so much that it could mean anything from a certain kind of building to public transport to a way of life.

Inside homes, the currency of ‘green’ is increasing all the time. The fridge, TV, airconditioner, geyser, microwave, each one is a certain category of green (which denotes energy efficiency, in this case). There’s also the feel-good factor: you are saving electricity and helping the environment.

For Inderjit Randhawa, the story changed from here. Soon after moving to his new house in Emerald Hills off Southern Peripheral Road in Gurugram, he realised all the energy-saving devices were being powered by diesel-guzzling generator sets. In the city’s new sectors (58-115), scores of housing societies, big and small, run on gensets all the time because power lines from the state grid haven’t reached them yet.

Besides the obvious impact on air pollution, this also leads to monthly power bills that are much higher than what they should be because the cost of diesel and maintenance of generators has to be factored in. Possession offers for new flats in the region have started flowing over the past three years and there are societies that have been running on gensets for this whole period, since the first family moved in.

But how did developers manage to get occupancy certificates (OC) without this basic amenity?

The government policy is that it is not mandatory for a developer to have official power and water connections to get an OC as long as it provides these services one way or another. Consequently, many developers, to avoid penalties for delays, handed over possession without waiting for government agencies to develop civic infrastructure. So, water is supplied through tankers and power comes from diesel generators round the clock.

Samrat Kumar Chakraborty, a resident of Sidhartha NCR One in Sector 95 off Dwarka Expressway, faces the same problem as Randhawa does. “Power is supplied only through diesel gensets. As a result, society funds are mainly spent on buying diesel, undermining maintenance of other facilities like lifts as well as general welfare of residents. Use of diesel generators also has an adverse impact on the environment,” he said.

At a genset-powered society, a unit of electricity costs around Rs 18-20, as against Rs 7.50 per unit charged by the discom.

Emerald Hills, for example, houses 85 families (around 340 people), who consume around 6,700 units of power daily. Therefore, the developer spends approximately Rs 1.34 lakh per day (at the rate of Rs 20 per unit) to supply this power from gensets, which results in a monthly cost of around Rs 40 lakh. The grid supply, on the other hand, would have cost Rs 15.12 lakh per month.

Similarly, a total of 385 families (1,500 residents) live in The Palm Drive in Sector 66. The developer supplies around 26,000 units daily through gensets, spending around Rs 5.20 lakh. The spending on power bills comes to around Rs 1.56 crore every month, compared with Rs 58.5 lakh that the grid supply would have cost. There is a huge environment cost too — The Palm Drive burns around 6,000 litres of diesel daily.

Some developers bear the additional burden; others pass some or all of it on to residents in the form of maintenance or service charges.

A senior discom official said 1,625 housing licences have so far been given out in the new sectors. And to cater to that, the government plans to set up 42 substations of 66kV and 220kV by 2050.

“But as of now, only one substation in Sector 72 has become operational and the installation work for five others is under process. A tender has been issued for one more. Currently, the discom is supplying only 500-600 MVA (Mega Volt Amp), and the five new substations will increase the capacity to 1,400 MVA,” said the official, without specifying any deadline.

Yashpal Yadav, former Huda administrator and now the MCG chief, said of the 42 proposed substations, one was ready while land had been handed over for another 14 substations to Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited (HVPNL). “Land acquisition for nine more substations has been completed but the sites could not be handed over due to encroachments. Also, compensation has been awarded for another 11 proposed sites, while two more sites are being acquired. The status of the remaining five sites is unknown,” said Yadav.

Last October, the National Green Tribunal had imposed a ban on the use of diesel generators in Delhi following a spike in pollution levels. Had the tribunal extended the ban to NCR, Gurugram’s new sectors would have plunged into darkness. Both homebuyers and developers say the state government, which has promised to do its bit to reduce high levels of pollution in NCR, must walk the talk and start building power infrastructure on a war footing?

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